Tag Archives: school

Want to help your children or grandchildren improve their maths? Why not get them signed up to use Mathletics through Edinburgh Libraries. Mathletics is a fantastic website that teaches children maths in a fun and addictive way. You sign them up at their Scottish school level so you know they will be learning exactly what they need for school. They can work towards “medals” and can compete against each other in online maths games.

There are almost 5 million children of primary and secondary age using Mathletics around the world including many who use it in their schools. A study at the University of Oxford recently found that pupils regularly using Mathletics outperformed non-users in Primary 6 Standard Attainment Tests in terms of attainment and progress.

The school year is upon us once again and the hard work of entertaining the little darlings is over for another summer holiday. The task of trying to prise them from the latest video game to do their homework however, has only just begun.

Our advice is why fight nature? Leave them super-glued to the screen but direct them from hi-score counts to counting of a different kind with the world’s most popular maths website.

Among many other clever features Mathletics allows children to compete with others around the world in games of speed and skill using maths. It comes highly recommended by Rachel Riley (aka her off Countdown). And surely the success of that programme shows us that maths needn’t be drudgery .

On a similar vein, Spellzone is another site worth knowing about – and not just for children, It’s also incredibly helpful for people with dyslexia and those learning English.

Motivational reading

So that’s maths and spelling taken care of, but what about the rest? How do you motivate them to do their work without needing to resort to nagging or shouting (or confiscating their iPads). Here are four reading suggestions to get you started: